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Wanderlei Silva’s next fight will be with Michael Bisping, a well-placed Las Vegas source has told Fighters Only. The fight may headline the UFC’s first event in Australia, which takes place in February 2010.
Verbal agreements for the clash have been given, although Fighters Only understands that bout agreements are not yet drawn up. The fight will not be official until these are signed and returned by both men.
Bisping is coming off a win over Denis Kang at UFC 105 while Silva is coming off a decision loss to Rich Franklin at UFC 99. That fight took place at a catch weight of 195lbs and while Bisping operates at middleweight now, he too is a former light-heavyweight, making a catch weight meeting a possibility.

If the lack of depth on last Saturday's UFC 106 card didn't alarm you, it should.
Sure, UFC has a giant roster of fighters that they don't have to pay unless they fight. However, the talent pool has shrunken considerably over the last year and it's due in part to injuries and an over-abundance of live events. For MMA fans like you and I, having more shows is fine with us. We love MMA and will watch anything - but we're also the hardcore fans. We're not the ones putting our money on the line to promote it.

After being out one year due to a serious leg injury that was viewed as career-threatening, former TUF 5 contestant Corey Hill could be returning to MMA as soon as January. He reportedly plans to return January 23 for "Raging Wolf" in Niagara, NY. Hill is still under UFC contract but it appears he will be given similar treatment that they gave Houston Alexander, who was given permission to take a couple of fights in outside promotions while under UFC contract.

Spike TV has released the ratings for it's broadcast of 2 UFC 106 prelim fights Saturday. The 1 hour broadcast drew 1.3 million viewers, down slightly from the first 2 such airings, which did 1.4 million viewers each. Spike did claim that the broadcast won the target men 18-34 and men 18-49 demos, beating a college football game on ESPN.

Better Know a Judge: Lester Griffin, the Guy Who Scored It 30-27 for Forrest
UFC 106's Griffin/Ortiz rematch was a tricky one to judge, not just because the first two rounds were fairly even, but because it was contested both on the feet and on the ground — and as we've seen many times in the past, MMA judges can have vastly different opinions on the relative value of each aspect of a fight. In the end, Glenn Trowbridge saw it 29-28 for Tito Ortiz, while Marcos Rosales had it 29-28 for Griffin. The deciding vote was cast by a guy named Lester Griffin, who, from his angle, witnessed a one-sided shellacking. His 30-27 score for Forrest Griffin was later described as "crazy," "outrageous," and "insane" by Dana White.
Some interesting footage of "stick fighting" that I've never seen before...very interesting.

The Ultimate Fighting Championship on Monday announced a lightweight bout pitting Mark Bocek against newcomer Joe Brammer for “The Ultimate Fighter: Heavyweights” finale, confirming an earlier report from MMAWeekly.com.
Brammer takes the place of Matt Veach, who recently stepped into a feature bout position against Frankie Edgar when Edgar’s original opponent, Kurt Pellegrino, had to withdraw due to a back injury.

Unfortunately it seems that the TUF 10 fighter affectionately nicknamed "Titties" by Quinton Jackson" will have to put his MMA career on hold after the show. Darrill Schoonover announced yesterday that after he fights on 12/5 at the TUF 10 Finale-of course he can't reveal his opponent yet-he has been recalled by the Army and will return to active duty. He's been out for nearly 2 years after 4 years active service, meaning he's within the window that he can still be recalled, and while he's not 100% sure where he's going, he says it's probably Afghanistan. He hopes to be back and resuming MMA in about a year.
Come back safely when it's over, big guy.

Spike TV today confirmed that cast member Kevin "Kimbo Slice" Ferguson is scheduled to compete at the Dec. 5 live finale for "The Ultimate Fighter 10."
MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com) previously reported that Ferguson (3-1 MMA, 0-0 UFC) meets Houston Alexander (9-4 MMA, 2-3 UFC) in a catch-weight bout, but Spike TV officials won't announce his opponent until after a two-hour, season-ending Dec. 2 episode of "TUF 10," which is the latest edition of the UFC's reality series.
Spike TV has teased the possibility of Ferguson, who lost an opening-round matchup to former IFL champion Roy Nelson in the third episode of the series, as possibly re-entering the competition as an injury replacement.
The Ultimate Fighter 10 Finale takes place at the The Pearl at the Palms Casino Resort in Las Vegas. The night's main card, including a Jon Jones vs. Matt Hamill headliner, airs on Spike TV.

The NSAC has revealed the fighter payouts from UFC 106. The total disclosed payouts were $1,021,000 with the biggest share-$250,000-going to both Forrest Griffin and Tito Ortiz. Both Fabricio Camoes and Caol Uno only earned show money with no win bonuses because their fight went to a Draw.

Looking back at this past Saturday's UFC 106, SI.com's Ben Fowlkes and I discuss the hot topics coming from the big fights.
We look at what the future has in store for Hall of Famer Tito Ortiz, worthy opponents for Georges St-Pierre, Amir Sadollah's performance against Phil Baroni and the next step for Antonio Rogerio Nogueira.

Yoshihiro Akiyama has been spending some time training with the stars at Xtreme Couture, and that's where FanHouse caught up with him last week.
Akiyama talked about facing Wanderlei Silva in 2010, whether he would ever consider dropping down to welterweight, the legend that is "Sexyama," and his unique entrance music.

"The fight could have gone either way," White said. "(But) 30-27? I mean that's crazy."
White was referring to the official scorecard of judge Lester Griffin, who awarded Forrest all three rounds of the fight, resulting in the 30-27 total.
"The 30-27 score is outrageous," White said. "It's insane."
White considered the opening frame of the fight the closest of the the three rounds. Griffin landed the better shots on the feet and fended off two takedown attempts, while Ortiz scored an early takedown and landed a few blows before his opponent escaped to the feet.
"It was a close first round," White said. "The first round was tough to score. As soon as that fight was over, all of us that were sitting down were like, 'That was a tough round to score.'"
take on the situation (includes a video interview with Marc Ratner).

Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira is looking forward to the day when he can enter a fight 100-percent healthy, or at least without a staph infection.
Just after accepting a heavyweight challenge against youngster Cain Velasquez for UFC 108 on Jan. 2, Nogueira discovered that he had another staph infection, the fourth instance in a one-year span.
“I didn’t take the antibiotic enough. The medicine given me in Brazil wasn’t good,” the former Pride and UFC champion told MMAWeekly.com on Saturday night. “Now Dana White send me (to) a different doctor here last week. I’ll be on treatment for six weeks with antibiotics.”

“(Dan Hardy’s) not gonna happen, I’m just gonna fight,” he told MMAWeekly.com. “I already told Joe Silva I’m ready to fight. Hopefully I can get 10 to 12 fights next year.”
Really?
“Yeah, 10 to 12,” he declared.
Even with Zuffa pushing its UFC brand across the globe and constantly upping its number of events each year, 10 to 12 isn’t really realistic, but Silva and UFC boss Dana White have got to love the enthusiasm.

LAS VEGAS -- Mixed martial arts may be enjoying rapid growth but it is also experiencing growing pains when it comes to judging.
For the third card in a row, the UFC found itself frustrated and somewhat on the defensive Saturday night after Forrest Griffin won a split decision over Tito (The Huntington Beach Bad Boy) Ortiz at UFC 106 in a matchup of former light-heavyweight champions.

A welterweight clash with fireworks written all over it has been booked for UFC 110 in Australia.
Undefeated Korean slugger Dong Hyun Kim (12-0-1 MMA, 3-0 UFC) and Chris Lytle (27-17-5 MMA, 6-9 UFC) have signed on to face each other at the as-yet-unannounced Feb. 21 event at Acer Arena in Sydney, Australia.